linctus

PRONUNCIATION:

(LINGK-tuhs)

MEANING:

noun: A syrupy liquid medicine, especially for treating coughs.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin lingere (to lick). Ultimately from the Indo-European root
leigh- (lick) that is also the source of lichen (apparently from the way
it licks its way around a surface), and lecher, but not lingerie (which
is from the root lino: flax).

USAGE:

"The audience emitted a few throaty cackles, as if they had collectively
drunk too much cough linctus."
Simon Hoggart; Labour Conference; The Guardian (London, UK); Sep 24, 2007.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It was our own moral failure and not any accident of chance, that while preserving the appearance of the Republic we lost its reality. -Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE)